


forbidden relationships

by mayoho



Series: Fictober 2020 [8]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27580973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayoho/pseuds/mayoho
Summary: relationships can be forbidden in all sorts of ways. this one is forbidden in most of them.
Relationships: The Doctor/Jack Harkness
Series: Fictober 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015945
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	forbidden relationships

Jack pulls away at the last possible moment before their lips would brush together. Arousal pools in his stomach at the way the Doctor’s eyes snap open, his brows creasing in mild annoyance.

“I’m a 51st century man with 51st century sensibilities. When I hook up with someone, I like to make sure to have a good working knowledge of their cultural—”

“Right, informed consent,” the Doctor cuts Jack off, yanking his fingers through his hair. “21st century humans are only just starting to talk about that; well, of course some people, mainly academic feminists have been… anyway, it makes for an interesting transitional period—”

Jack takes the Doctor’s wrist, rubbing his thumb against the alien’s pulse point, effectively silencing him. “Doctor,” Jack says very softly, “stop. You’re not going to distract me with a history lesson. So, what does this mean for you?”

“Nothing,” Jack drops the Doctor’s wrist like he’s been shocked. The Doctor doesn’t really seem to notice, stuffing his hands in his pockets and curling in on himself. He continues, not looking at Jack, “In my cultural context. Time Lords don’t do this sort of thing, or if they do they don’t talk about it, certainly not with…”

It finally clicks in Jack’s head, and he feels remarkably thick. The Doctor doesn’t talk about Gallifrey, not really, not without the sepia tint of memory, glossing over anything real or meaningful.

“I suppose it wouldn’t really mean nothing–it would be so transgressive the only conceivable response would be to politely ignore it.”

“Really?” Jack can’t help but comment. It’s so far outside of his frame of reference; he knows otherwise, but Jack has never quite shaken the feeling that sexual liberation went hand in hand with societal advancement.

“Yeah. Time Lords are…” the Doctor trails off and tugs at his hair again. “Culturally asexual?”

“Like certain societies of humans are culturally monogamous and heterosexual, despite individual desires existing on a broad spectrum?”

The Doctor frowns, “No. At least, not quite. In species where one has the ability to consciously tweak one’s own brain chemistry and neural pathways, there is a greater ability and, generally, a corresponding greater expectation to conform to normative behavior. Of course it does sometimes lead to the opposite, a greater acceptance for experimentation. But, well, not for Time Lords, or, not by the time it mattered to—”

“So you’ve never—”

“I didn’t say that at all.”

“Not until you left then?”

“Oh, no. I was still a student. We made a point to engage in every transgressive activity we encountered, and a fair few we had to engineer ourselves. Sex was hardly the worst of it.”

Jack looks away. He has a very strong suspicion of who the Doctor means when he says ‘we’. Jack wonders if he can ignore it, knows it would kill him to have the Doctor confirm it. When he looks up, the Doctor is wearing a grim smile, like he knows what Jack is thinking.

His face softens a bit as he looks at Jack, but the tension in his jaw doesn’t quite dissipate. “What would it mean to you?” the Doctor’s voice is very soft. “I know what it would mean in your cultural context, but for you specifically?”

“More than I’d want it to,” Jack says with a self deprecatingly wry smile. “But not anything I couldn’t handle.”

The Doctor tips his head in response, studying Jack carefully. “Then I don’t think we should. But you know me, no good at taking my own advice.”

Jack should ask the Doctor more questions, but he knows now that none of the answers will be good and he wants this. Instead, he leans in and very carefully slots their lips together. The Doctor’s mouth is soft, pliant, and alien cool as he presses a hand to the small of Jack’s back, pulling Jack along as he backs himself into the TARDIS console.

Yeah, Jack thinks. He wants this, damn how he will feel afterwards.

**Author's Note:**

> The 10th Doctor is really sort of an awful person.


End file.
